ARTICLES ABOUT TAX EXEMPTION BY DATE - PAGE 4

By Rajat Gandhi The Union Budget for 2015 is less than a fortnight away and this year the government needs to fix vital components of the economy and ensure startups are provided the right atmosphere to grow and flourish. According to me, the budget should address the following five issues on a priority to ensure the country meets its growth targets. Easy access to funding: For every startup, access to funds or capital has been one of the biggest issues and continues to be one. While the startup ecosystem has matured considerably, raising money still continues to be a problem - both equity and debt.

By Sudhir Kaushik Valentine's Day is just two days away. What will you gift your beloved? Perhaps a diamond ring? Or a box of chocolates? Your choice will depend on how well you planned your finances during the year. If you were lazy and did not pay attention to your tax planning, the tax deducted from your salary would leave you with very little to spare on Valentine's Day. Then a 500 gram box of chocolates is the only option open to you. But if you were a careful tax planner who started saving tax from the very first month of the financial year, you could afford a diamond ring or something equally expensive.

NEW DELHI: The union government is in the process of gift-wrapping a bonanza for startups with proposals to exempt them from service tax and excise duties for a specified period. An inter-ministerial group is considering a one-stop registration service for all startups that will make also them eligible for government grants. The group, chaired by Jayant Sinha who is minister of state for finance, includes ministries of science and technology, corporate affairs and the department of electronics and IT. Harkesh Mittal , secretary in the department of science and technology, confirmed talks but declined to share specifics of the proposals under consideration.

MUMBAI: The government may consider the demand of banks to make fixed deposits for three years and more tax-free instead of the five-year lock-in period at present, providing these lenders a level-playing field with mutual funds and tax-free bonds that have been weaning away a large chunk of investors. Indicating this possibility, officials said bank executives and heads of financial institutions also requested finance minister Arun Jaitley in a pre-budget meeting to consider separate tax slabs for corporate entities on the lines of different tax slabs for individuals.

NEW DELHI: Trade union leaders today demanded an increase in income tax exemption ceiling for salaried class to Rs 5 lakh in the upcoming Budget. The income tax exemption ceiling at present is Rs 2.5 lakh. They also demanded that disinvestment in profit-making public sector units be stopped forthwith and budgetary support should be given for revival of potentially viable sick CPSUs. In their pre-budget meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley , representatives of 11 trade unions also opposed FDI in crucial sectors like defence production.

MUMBAI: At a time when the government has promised a more predictable tax regime as well as a far less aggressive one than under the previous administration, several foreign portfolio investors have been alarmed by moves to levy minimum alternate tax (MAT) on their capital gains from the market. Revenue officials in the Mumbai tax department issued show-cause notices to more than 35 foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) last month, triggering panic over fears of dented profit. Similar notices were sent in September as well, but to fewer investors.

NEW DELHI: Asserting that government does not subscribe to the ideology of imposing higher taxes to run the state, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today termed such an idea as "anti-people". He also allayed apprehensions that the government was foregoing significant taxes. Referring to tax exemption in the housing sector, he said: "We are happy to forego that tax because it is a pro-people foregoing. " Jaitley made the remarks in the Rajya Sabha while speaking on the Appropriation (No 4)

NEW DELHI: Various embassies based in the national capital have been given exemption in property tax by the government and there is no revenue loss for it, Lok Sabha was informed today. Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary said the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 and the UN Convention on privileges and Immunities 1947 forbid levy of taxes in any form on diplomatic missions. "There is no revenue loss in view of the above," he said in reply to a written question.

KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2014 was today passed in the West Bengal Assembly for exemption from property tax of those residential buildings and manner of their maintenance, which will add to the aesthetic beauty of the city. Speaking on the Bill, state's Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim said there was nothing new in the Bill, but some incentives to the residents, so that they could be part of the state government's beautification programme of the city.

BENGALURU: Karnataka Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy today said his deparment would reduce bus fares if the state government extends tax exemption to all road transport corporations (RTCs) and provides travel subsidy to students. "We will reduce bus fares if the state government extends tax exemption to all road transport corporations and provides travel subsidy to students," he told reporters here. The price of diesel had come down by Rs 6.18 per litre recently, which prompted the JDS and BJP in Karnataka to demand reduction in bus fares.